Last reviewed 2019
1.The Combs Sailing Club By laws, The Racing Rules of Sailing, RYA Prescriptions, Class Rules and these Sailing Instructions will apply to all boats, except that boats competing in open meetings will be subject to specific Open Meeting Sailing Instructions.
2. Notwithstanding any of the provisions of these Sailing Instructions, the buoyancy, safety and management of a boat, including Combs SC owned boats shall be the sole responsibility of the person in charge of her.
3. Every boat shall hold a valid measurement certificate in accordance with her class rules.
4. Every boat shall be insured with a Third Party Indemnity of at least £3,000,000.
5. All persons shall wear an approved buoyancy aid whilst afloat. Wet suits or dry suits do not constitute adequate personal buoyancy.
6. Club Officials may inspect the buoyancy arrangements of boats and if considered inadequate, a boat will not be allowed afloat.
7. It is always the sole responsibility of the helm and crew to decide if it is safe for them to go afloat, bearing in mind the state of their craft, their own sailing experience and ability, and the weather conditions during the time they are afloat. If requested to come ashore by Club Officials helms and crews should immediately comply.
8. Race entries shall be made before the warning signal on the sheets provided.
9. In club racing events, a member may sail any monohull dinghy with a recognised Portsmouth Number equal to or above the current number allocated to the Fireball Dinghy by the RYA Yardstick scheme. This is 952 in 2019.
10. The Flags and Numeral Pennants will be used as class signals as follows:-
- GP Fleet Numeral Pennant 1
- Handicap Fleet Pennant 2
- Supernova Fleet Pennant 3
11. Starts can be from the starters hut, the committee boat or a transit pole erected on the shore. The start line will be between a designated mark and the starters hut, the committee boat or a shore based transit pole.
12. Courses will be displayed on the course board before the warning signal.
- The start line will be shown with Black letters or numbers.
- Red numbers and letters indicate marks to be rounded to port and Green numbers and letters indicate marks to be rounded to starboard.
- The number of laps to be sailed shall be indicated with Blue numbers
13. The starting procedure for Fleet Racing will be in accordance with RRS 26.
- A standby call, when used, should be promptly followed by the five minute warning signal.
- The warning signal will be made 5 minutes before the start i.e. 5, 4, 1, Go.
- In the event of more than one fleet starting, the start signal for the 1st start will be the 5 minute warning signal for the 2nd start etc.
14. In the event of a General Recall, the fleet concerned will start five minutes after all other fleets have started.
- The OOD will sound two blasts of the horn and advise verbally that a General Recall is to be initiated. When using the automated starting system the two blasts can be sounded automatically.
- Individual recalls will be signalled by one blast of the horn and premature starters “may” be advised verbally. (Note. it is not the race officers responsibility to inform premature starters.)
15. When a Pursuit Race is programmed, the slowest boat will start at the advertised time. The starting times for the other classes will be based on the Club’s Handicap system and will be displayed before the race. Warning and preparatory signals will not be made for these other classes, but a sound signal may be made for each start. The race time should normally be 60 or 120 minutes for the fastest boat sailing.
One blast of the horn indicates the race completion. Boats should continue sailing without overtaking until they are advised that have finished by race officers or the OOD sounds two blasts of the horn.
The Club’s Personal Handicap for each boat will remain the same for every race on any given series or trophy event. If any changes are required, these will be made by the Sailing Committee.
16. The finish line may be between a mark and the starters hut, the committee boat, or a shore based transit pole.
17. Handicap & Fleet races should be between 45 and 60 minutes duration. A boat failing to finish within 20 minutes on corrected time of the first boat finishing may be scored “did not finish” Boats with a yardstick number of 1200 or greater shall normally sail fewer laps.
18. Shortened Course. Race officers should advise shortening course by displaying the S Flag (Blue Square with White surround) with two blasts. This action should be carried out before the leading boat crosses the line or rounds a mark on the course.
The finishing line may be:
- At a mark rounding.
- At a line the boats are required to cross at the end of each lap.
19. When a boat wishes to protest another boat it shall hail the word “PROTEST”. Boats need not display a flag when protesting.
20. Protests shall be written on forms available in the club house and delivered to the OOD within 120 minutes of the protesting boat finishing the race. When sailing back to back races, the 120 minutes will commence at the end of the back to back sequence.
If an Advisory Hearing is requested specific forms are available in the club house. The process for the Advisory Hearing is available with the forms. This is a less formal process and does not require the same restrictions placed on a formal protest.
21. Points will be awarded as follows: 1st place – 1 point, 2nd place – 2 points, 3rd place – 3 points etc.
In a series event 25% (rounded down to a whole number of races) of results will be discarded in scoring the series.
22. Trophy events consisting of four races shall have one discard.
- Trophy events with less than four races will not have a discard.
- A trophy winner must complete three races in a four race series and all the scheduled races in pursuit trophy. If only one race is sailed in a two race series a trophy will not be awarded.
- A minimum of two dinghies are required to compete for a race result to be recorded. Each race must be competed in accordance with the ISAF Basic rules of Sportsmanship. (E.g. a boat cannot start a race in order to qualify another competitor in a race.)
23 Ties will be decided using RRS Appendix A.8
- “8.1 If there is a score tie between two or more boats, each boats race score shall be listed in order of best to worst, and at the first point(s) where there is a difference the tie shall be broken in favour of the boat with the best score(s). No excluded scores shall be used.”
- “8.2 If a tie remains between two or more boats, they shall be ranked in order of their scores in the last race. Any remaining ties shall be broken by using the tied boats scores in the next to last race and so on until all ties are broken. These scores shall be used even if some of them are excluded scores.”
24. A race declared void or not sailed shall be deemed cancelled unless the Sailing Committee orders a re-sail.
25. The race Officer “may” advise helms that they have not sailed the correct course.
It should be noted that the helm is responsible for compliance with the rules of sailing and it is not the responsibility of the race officer to advise of infringements during racing.
